Sigh*…my brain is beyond fried this week. There has been so much going on (mostly work related that is boring and I won’t get into), my brain feels like it has been moving nonstop…I can tell because I’ve been having lots of dreams and waking up throughout the nights. Take a rest, brain! It’s the weekend. Ohhh, it’s a busy, busy weekend…sigh*, maybe another time.
*Quick side note- I realize that much of the busy-ness is my doing and I love it. At moments it feels overwhelming, but I wouldn’t want it any other way- Occasionally I just need to sigh a little bit.
First, let me tell you how last week ended because I think it is worth noting and appreciating. Remember how I was commenting on how I don’t know that I would make caramel apples again because of the mess still a-waiting me in my kitchen- all over my kitchen? Well, right after work on Friday I had to go to a training at 826…it was an hour and a half long. Brian picked me up after and we stopped at Mr. Gyro’s for dinner and then went to the new ice cream place on Greenwood (which I actually didn’t totally love…boo)…then we went to my house. AND…Brian had cleaned the whole kitchen while I was at my training! Whaaat! Oh my gosh…what a SUPER fantastic and awesome surprise! Then…I walked further in the living room and there were my favorite flowers in a vase on the table! Yes! I actually felt a little sorry for the flowers because normally I would be so incredibly excited about them…I LOVE flowers…but I was just so thrilled about the clean kitchen, the flowers didn’t get the attention they deserved. Thanks Brian- you’re swell!
This week…
Another 826 field trip…a third grade class this week. It was crazy to me how different this class was from the second grade class last week. Since this is only the second field trip, it might have just been the particular classes versus the age…not sure. But the third grade class was like PULLING TEETH to get anything creative out of them. Every idea they came up with was just like ordinary life…the main character was a Bunny, he lived on a farm with other animals, liked to bounce and was looking for carrots. The volunteers worked hard to spice it up with the carrots being magical carrots that granted wishes, and the bunny can jump over tall buildings and long distances, etc…the kids seemed much more focused on what the other kids in their class were doing…many of the illustrations they did for their story was exactly the same as their neighbor. Do kids start losing that imagination and start worrying about what people think in between second and third grade? I asked my mom about it and she said she guessed it was just the particular class. I guess we will see next time.
On Tuesday night we went to a Theology Pub…one of our friends was giving a talk on Dante’s Divine Comedy. I thought it was super interesting. In the past few years I have been making an effort to read the ‘classics’, knowing that they are classics for a reason. Dante has been in the back of my mind for a while (ever since I encountered ‘Dante’s biggest fan’ in Florence who spends all his days reciting the Divine Comedy to whoever stops to listen), always seeming a little bit too intimidating. But hey, I read The Brothers K, which was SUPER intimidating, and actually liked it…so I think I can give this a try. Especially after the talk, and kind of having an idea of what to expect. I also really enjoy theological discussion in general, though sometimes think it can get a little bit pretentious… Gabriel handled all of the questions that came at him really, really well and never made it feel that way.
I am still on a bit of an ice cream making kick. Well, gelato…I still can’t bring myself to use full on heavy cream. This week we had another batch of the pumpkin- always a Fall favorite, nutella (chocolate-hazelnut) which tasted an awful lot like a frosty, and ‘harvest peach’…which was a bit of an experiment without a recipe. We wanted to do a fruit flavor and Brian suggested peaches…we got a can of peaches, I added a little bit of the juice from the can to the base mix, and then cut the peaches up into small pieces. Added some of the pumpkin pie spices, and called it Harvest Peach. It ended up being my favorite.
I had my first basketball practice with my 2nd/3rd grade girls team last night. Oh my. First of all, chaos. CHAOS. Everybody practices at the Boys and Girls Club (when I played, we practiced at different elementary schools), which means there are up to four teams practicing in one gym at the same time…so we only get a quarter of the court. And it is so loud. Basketballs flying everywhere. And…two of my girls got in a fight with each other. WHAT?! Oh my gosh, I was shocked. But overall, I think it went pretty well. We huddled up at the end and talked about what their favorite drills were, and they seemed to like just about everything. We all gave lots of high fives. And I gave them a homework assignment- to try and use their left hand at home as much as possible…eat with your left hand, brush your teeth with your left hand, etc…we want our left hand to be just as strong as our right hand. One girl refused. Oh well.
That’s this week’s report…have a super fantastic weekend!
Friday, October 21, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
Need a nap....
An update- had our first field trip at 826 with a second grade class. Was hilarious. Reminded me of Turtle Talk with Crush at Disney. Kids say such funny things. Our story ended up being about a super hero dog- Super Dog, and his friends at school (Julie the cheetah, Stinker the skunk) Stinker was bullying Julie and took her lunch money…she was sad and ran away. Everyone went on a search to find her. Stinker climbed up to the roof and discovered she had run away to the Fremont Troll…which was bad news, because it happened to be the one day of the year that the troll comes to life. And that was the cliffhanger we left the kids with to finish. My favorite ending was the kid that decided the troll was only interested in finding a Subaru to crush, not hurting any of the animal kids. A Subaru in particular.
We made caramel apples for the northwest-themed potluck this week. They turned out tasty enough, but I don’t know that it would be a choice I would make again…my kitchen is currently a disaster from the preparation. Sticky caramel on many a-dish, on the countertops, pans. Then the food processor needs to be cleaned from the candy we crushed to add to the outsides. Dishes containing the various toppings (nuts, skor bar, and m&ms) spilling out on the counter and floor from rolling the apples over them…ahhh, big mess everywhere. But a fun treat and something new.
This week Brian and I did the Whole Foods Tuesday special…buy two of their take and bake pizzas for the price of one…so we get two big pizzas for $12. Which ends up being at least three meals for each of us (usually dinner, lunch, lunch). A few months ago, we were doing it often…great deal, good pizza, convenient, etc….but then we got tired of the pizza. So we hadn’t done it for a couple of months and just decided to go for it again this week. Ugh…just had my final slice for lunch today and it was all I could do to get it down. Probably not going to be doing that again for a while. I’m still feeling upset about my lunch today.
But on a positive note, tonight we will be (hopefully) stopping in at the new ice cream place that opened today in Greenwood. I could really go for some tasty ice cream, especially ice cream of a seasonal flavor. http://bluebirdseattle.blogspot.com
Also on the weekend agenda…training at 826 tonight for working on college essays with high school kids, a fall festival tomorrow complete with a corn maze, u-pick apples, hay ride, and of course apple cider. Sounders game Sat night (still tickets available…go to the game!) and a crockpot party on Sunday (with some new homemade ice cream flavor attempts)…should be good.
Though at the moment, I’d just like a nap. Yawn.
We made caramel apples for the northwest-themed potluck this week. They turned out tasty enough, but I don’t know that it would be a choice I would make again…my kitchen is currently a disaster from the preparation. Sticky caramel on many a-dish, on the countertops, pans. Then the food processor needs to be cleaned from the candy we crushed to add to the outsides. Dishes containing the various toppings (nuts, skor bar, and m&ms) spilling out on the counter and floor from rolling the apples over them…ahhh, big mess everywhere. But a fun treat and something new.
This week Brian and I did the Whole Foods Tuesday special…buy two of their take and bake pizzas for the price of one…so we get two big pizzas for $12. Which ends up being at least three meals for each of us (usually dinner, lunch, lunch). A few months ago, we were doing it often…great deal, good pizza, convenient, etc….but then we got tired of the pizza. So we hadn’t done it for a couple of months and just decided to go for it again this week. Ugh…just had my final slice for lunch today and it was all I could do to get it down. Probably not going to be doing that again for a while. I’m still feeling upset about my lunch today.
But on a positive note, tonight we will be (hopefully) stopping in at the new ice cream place that opened today in Greenwood. I could really go for some tasty ice cream, especially ice cream of a seasonal flavor. http://bluebirdseattle.blogspot.com
Also on the weekend agenda…training at 826 tonight for working on college essays with high school kids, a fall festival tomorrow complete with a corn maze, u-pick apples, hay ride, and of course apple cider. Sounders game Sat night (still tickets available…go to the game!) and a crockpot party on Sunday (with some new homemade ice cream flavor attempts)…should be good.
Though at the moment, I’d just like a nap. Yawn.
Friday, October 7, 2011
dancing, writing, basketball- oh my!
It has been a busy week…I’ve been fighting a bit of a stomach bug since Monday (missed Brian’s championship kickball game), but am finally feeling about 97%. Here’s the Friday Five…
- So I am a little bit embarrassed to say that I didn’t know about DonorsChoose before this week. Starbucks was giving away coupons from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for $10 to donate to the teacher project of your choice. Very cool on the part of the Gates, Starbucks, and all of those teachers that take the time to compose projects to enrich their student’s education. I’m embarrassed because it’s super cool and I wish I had been donating already, but even more so because my mom has two projects up! Jeez louise Mom! Anyway…if you received a coupon from Starbucks and don’t know who to put the certificate toward, or you just feel like it is important and want to donate your own money, here is my mom’s page: http://www.donorschoose.org/we-teach/1068221 I also noticed, via facebook posts that some friends from high school that are now teachers have pages…I think this will be my monthly donation spot for a while.
- Last weekend Brian and I went to a dance party…it’s an annual event that his friends have…theme, costumes, pictures, music, dancing…you know, dance party. I was feeling a little nervous about it. I had been hearing about past dance parties, and it was something Brian was REALLY looking forward to (and I’m just not a big dancer)…this year’s theme was Hipster…which only made me more nervous…what does that mean? And I am a big fan of themes…so I didn’t want to half ass the costume. Brian decided on his costume almost immediately upon hearing the theme. I was still trying to decide the morning of. Luckily, Brian came up with a great idea, I made a quick run to JoAnn Fabrics and Fred Meyers…and voila, a hipster costume was made. Here we are.
Brian is Sufjan Stevens. I am Bon Iver (you know, a ‘Good Winter’). Party ended up being lots of fun…there was other stuff to do besides dance (chat, eat, photo booth, follow the soccer game), but I even found myself doing that some. AND, Brian and I won best costumes. Yes!
- I got a little reprieve from my stomachache on Tuesday evening during the Open Cup championship game. Maybe from adrenaline? I don’t know…because I was jumping up and down, stressed, nervous, excited…all things I would think might upset the stomach. Anyway…AWESOME game on Tuesday. Sounders won 2-0…though it probably should have been like 7-0 (maybe 7-1…Keller had a great bobble save near the end)- we took so many great shots and nothing was going in. So glad we finally got a couple of goals in the second half, because we completely dominated the game and it would have been pretty disappointing otherwise. Final regular season game is on October 15th…looks like they are going to sell out the entire CenturyLink field for the first time (usually the upper bowl is closed)…if you haven’t been to a game or not sure what you think about soccer…go buy a ticket for the last game and check it out!
- Had our ‘dress rehearsal’ at 826 for our upcoming Geoduck field trip that starts next Tuesday! There is a new Programs Coordinator, so he wanted to have some of the veterans of the field trip come in and give the newbies kind of a run through so we know what to expect on Tuesday. It sounds like it will be pretty fast-paced, chaotic, and a bit crazy…lots of different moving pieces…and then throw in 25 2nd graders…yikes! I’m excited for next week to see how it all plays out. I signed up to be trained as the typist…AKA, the one that actually writes the story from all of the kids’ ideas. Will definitely let you know how the real thing goes….eek!
- Finally, I signed up for some more volunteering (I’m anticipating a grey and dreary next several months…might as well spend it doing fun things with other people, right!)…this is something I have been wanting to do for several years, but always seem to remember about a month too late. I’m going to be coaching a basketball team at the Boys and Girls Club! I’ll be coaching a group of 2nd/3rd grade girls. We had a coaches meeting last night- were assigned our teams, and given any tools and resources we might need. Right now my team only has 6 gals on it…will definitely need to do some recruiting! Also, I’d love to have an assistant coach…anyone interested in helping? Our practices and games are Thursday early evenings and Saturday mornings. Something I totally forgot about when I signed up to coach…PICTURE DAY…oh, I can’t wait!
That’s it for this week….
- So I am a little bit embarrassed to say that I didn’t know about DonorsChoose before this week. Starbucks was giving away coupons from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for $10 to donate to the teacher project of your choice. Very cool on the part of the Gates, Starbucks, and all of those teachers that take the time to compose projects to enrich their student’s education. I’m embarrassed because it’s super cool and I wish I had been donating already, but even more so because my mom has two projects up! Jeez louise Mom! Anyway…if you received a coupon from Starbucks and don’t know who to put the certificate toward, or you just feel like it is important and want to donate your own money, here is my mom’s page: http://www.donorschoose.org/we-teach/1068221 I also noticed, via facebook posts that some friends from high school that are now teachers have pages…I think this will be my monthly donation spot for a while.
- Last weekend Brian and I went to a dance party…it’s an annual event that his friends have…theme, costumes, pictures, music, dancing…you know, dance party. I was feeling a little nervous about it. I had been hearing about past dance parties, and it was something Brian was REALLY looking forward to (and I’m just not a big dancer)…this year’s theme was Hipster…which only made me more nervous…what does that mean? And I am a big fan of themes…so I didn’t want to half ass the costume. Brian decided on his costume almost immediately upon hearing the theme. I was still trying to decide the morning of. Luckily, Brian came up with a great idea, I made a quick run to JoAnn Fabrics and Fred Meyers…and voila, a hipster costume was made. Here we are.
Brian is Sufjan Stevens. I am Bon Iver (you know, a ‘Good Winter’). Party ended up being lots of fun…there was other stuff to do besides dance (chat, eat, photo booth, follow the soccer game), but I even found myself doing that some. AND, Brian and I won best costumes. Yes!- I got a little reprieve from my stomachache on Tuesday evening during the Open Cup championship game. Maybe from adrenaline? I don’t know…because I was jumping up and down, stressed, nervous, excited…all things I would think might upset the stomach. Anyway…AWESOME game on Tuesday. Sounders won 2-0…though it probably should have been like 7-0 (maybe 7-1…Keller had a great bobble save near the end)- we took so many great shots and nothing was going in. So glad we finally got a couple of goals in the second half, because we completely dominated the game and it would have been pretty disappointing otherwise. Final regular season game is on October 15th…looks like they are going to sell out the entire CenturyLink field for the first time (usually the upper bowl is closed)…if you haven’t been to a game or not sure what you think about soccer…go buy a ticket for the last game and check it out!
- Had our ‘dress rehearsal’ at 826 for our upcoming Geoduck field trip that starts next Tuesday! There is a new Programs Coordinator, so he wanted to have some of the veterans of the field trip come in and give the newbies kind of a run through so we know what to expect on Tuesday. It sounds like it will be pretty fast-paced, chaotic, and a bit crazy…lots of different moving pieces…and then throw in 25 2nd graders…yikes! I’m excited for next week to see how it all plays out. I signed up to be trained as the typist…AKA, the one that actually writes the story from all of the kids’ ideas. Will definitely let you know how the real thing goes….eek!
- Finally, I signed up for some more volunteering (I’m anticipating a grey and dreary next several months…might as well spend it doing fun things with other people, right!)…this is something I have been wanting to do for several years, but always seem to remember about a month too late. I’m going to be coaching a basketball team at the Boys and Girls Club! I’ll be coaching a group of 2nd/3rd grade girls. We had a coaches meeting last night- were assigned our teams, and given any tools and resources we might need. Right now my team only has 6 gals on it…will definitely need to do some recruiting! Also, I’d love to have an assistant coach…anyone interested in helping? Our practices and games are Thursday early evenings and Saturday mornings. Something I totally forgot about when I signed up to coach…PICTURE DAY…oh, I can’t wait!
That’s it for this week….
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)